2007 - Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant noodles and cup noodles (b. 1910)
2009 - Pascal Terry, French motorcycle racer, pulmonary edema.
2009 - Sam Taylor, American blues musician, complications from heart disease.
2009 - Verna Mae Slone, American author and quilter, complications from a fall.
2009 - Carl Pohlad, American billionaire banker, owner of the Minnesota Twins.
2009 - Stanton Parris, Barbadian cricket umpire, after short illness.
2009 - Mario Magnotta, Italian internet celebrity, pulmonary embolism.
2009 - Dale Livingston, American football player (Green Bay Packers), complications from heart surgery.
2009 - Gautam Goswami, Indian civil servant accused of corruption, pancreatic cancer.
Events
1477 - Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.
1527 - Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, is executed by drowning.
1554 - A great fire occurs in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
1675 - Battle of Colmar: the French army beats Brandenburg.
1757 - Louis XV of France survives the assassination attempt by Robert–François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
1759 - George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
1781 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
1846 - The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
1854 - The San Francisco steamer sinks, killing 300 people.
1895 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
1896 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
1909 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
1913 - First Balkan War: During the Naval Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
1914 - The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
1918 - The Free Committee for a German Workers Peace, which would become the Nazi party, is founded.
1925 - Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.
1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
1945 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
1962 - A replica of the miraculous statue, the Holy Infant of Good Health, is presented to Blessed Pope John XXIII.
1968 - Alexander Dubèek comes to power: "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
1969 - Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) damage property and assault occupants in the Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland. In response, residents erect barricades and establish Free Derry.
1972 - U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
1974 - An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and damages hundreds of houses.
1975 - The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
1976 - Cambodia is renamed Democratic Kampuchea by the Khmer Rouge.
1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
1996 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
2005 - Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.
